


A Terrible Man Is Never The Best Man Nor Is He Ever The Worst

by p_nd18



Category: Matilda (1996)
Genre: Father-Daughter Relationship, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-14
Updated: 2017-06-14
Packaged: 2018-11-13 23:32:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11195757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/p_nd18/pseuds/p_nd18
Summary: Mr. Wormwood is an elderly man who spends his days reminiscing about the past and one of the biggest mistakes of his life, but he doesn't regret what happened.





	A Terrible Man Is Never The Best Man Nor Is He Ever The Worst

**Author's Note:**

> THIS IS RATED M FOR SOME SLIGHT MENTIONS OF DEATH BY OLD AGE   
> no one actually dies, it's just mentioned.
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> Also a reminder that thIS IS NOT MATILDA X HER FATHER. NO INCEST. NO BUENO.   
> This is literally a fic about a father talking about his daughter in a nice FATHERLY way.
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> P.S just a quick notice that for some reason I don't actually call Mr. Wormwood out by name, I call him our character...
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> Idk
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> I guess it sounded edgy
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> Or something
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> Thank you for reading
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> Last one I promise
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> Okay I'm done.

An elderly man sat in a chair watching TV, well not really watching it, not anymore. A nice little girl once taught him that a far more pleasent entertainment could be found elsewhere, anywhere actually, as long as it wasn’t something as mundane as televison. 

His hair was thin from stress and age and his skin had thinned far more than what he wanted, but he supposed it was his punishment from when he was younger. He wan’t a terrible man. At least not anymore, but when he was younger (not extremely young, but young enough) He had a run in with the cops. It also resulted in one of the biggest mistakes in life. At the moment it was the best decision for the both of them and if he could go back in time to change that moment; he wouldn’t, but he also wouldn’t have been in that position in the first place…

As it turned out though, it ended for the best. She ended up being adopted by-as he is now realizing-an amazing woman;a woman that while being highly educated and slightly too demanding, changed that young girls life for the better. Something he couldn’t do at the time and unfortunately hadn’t wanted to.

His younger self would laugh at the “sad pathetic” man he went on to become. Now he thinks that this is who he should have been all along. Not a conman used-car salesman, but a humble man who does know right from wrong and who also knows that adults are not always right, that sometimes kids can actually-and quite frequently-prove to be smarter. 

The TV flickers to a political station.  
Somebody else has the remote.

There’s a woman in front of congress or is it the senate? He doesn’t know, nor does he care. All he knows is that she looks familiar. He knows that girl, well woman. He knows her. Hell, he helped make her possible. God she’s grown so much. She’s taller, obviously. One can easily tell she’s not the young girl she once was anymore. One thing didn’t change though, she still stands up to people a lot bigger than she is. She still fights the injustices in the world, but this isn’t a small town anymore and that’s not a principal. This is the big world, this is standing against law-makers and arguing about the importance of education to children in poverish communities. This isn’t his little girl anymore, hasn’t been for a long time.

A gentleman next to him makes a comment, something sexist i’m sure, and the man next to him argues a point, “It doesn’t matter whose up there, what matters is that she’s right. These kids deserve an education.” Our character joins in their conversation, he has no point to make, but he does have a good story to tell and he hopes that they will listen. “I know that girl. Hell, I ruined her life so much that I gave her a better one.”

“That’s a peculiar thing to admit.” The first man says. And our character speaks, “Yes, and there’s a long story to go along with it if anyone is willing to listen.” The second man chimes in, “Buddy, in a place like this we have all the time in the world.” A somber veil sinks around the three and it seems as if it has been there forever and they’ve just now noticed it’s presence.And it’s a sad thing to think that they don’t actually have all the time in the world. They are old. They’ve lived their lives, maybe not well and maybe not fully, but they all know that there will be a time where any one of them could be gone and soon enough they all will be.

It’s a sad thought indeed and our character’s story will hopefully enlighten them a little.  
Our character thinks for a bit, to gather his thoughts and to think of a beginning. In the end, there is only one way to begin her story…

“Everybody is born, but not everybody is born the same… One way or another though, every human being is unique. For better or for worse.”

He introduces his wife and himself accurately, they’re not the best people, but they aren’t the worst either. No matter how terrible they were and had continued to be, there was only one thing they had done right.

“...and they named her, Matilda.”

**Author's Note:**

> I told my brother that I had a Headcannon about how I thought the 1996 film of Matilda used their narrative. To explain, in the movie the narrator is obviously Danny Devito who plays Matilda's father Mr. Wormwood. When you watch the movie, he talks about Matilda so fondly that I couldn't help but think of this.
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> I'm sharing because my brother said he had never thought of it this way and I kind of wanted to find out if I was alone on this thought.


End file.
